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120 Main Street, Gibraltar

+350 200 77890

mark.porral@gmail.com

Gibraltar has a low crime rate and a large and efficient police force modelled on the British system to ensure it stays that way.

There are a few recent reports, however, of people being attacked on the Spanish side of the border while returning to Gibraltar on foot late at night. It might be smart to take a taxi home after dark if you have been drinking at the bars in Spain, especially if you are by yourself.

In some cases people queueing in cars to Gibraltar have been approached by official looking guys who try to sell them 20€ ticket for border crossing fee to enter Gibraltar. These are scam, any payment or ticket is not required to cross the border.

internet

Free wireless is available in the following places:

Fresh - a cafe/bar just down through the archway when leaving the main square towards the bus stops.

The Gibraltar Arms - about half way down the main street.

The Lord Nelson - just by the tunnel exiting the main square.

The Cannon Bar - behind the Catholic Cathedral.

The Clipper - on Irish Town near Tuckey's lane. Ask bartender for password.

Corks Wine Bar - on Irish Town near the Clipper. WEP key is written on a chalkboard above the bar.

The Horseshoe - on Main Street near the Gibraltar Museum & King Street. Ask bartender for password.

The Wembley Bar - in the South District at the top of Scud Hill. Ask bartender for password.

Trafalgar Sports Bar - Just outside the southern end of Main Street. See menu for password.

Gibraltar Telecom offer paid wireless hotspots across Gibraltar, but only in a very small number of locations and they may not all be working. The cable car trip up the rock comes with a voucher for three hours of free wifi up at the top.

phone

Gibraltar's international telephone code is +350. Spain finally recognized this code in 2007 and the old domestic Spanish code of 9567 was discontinued, making calls from Spain into Gibraltar in sync with the rest of the world. Another indirect consequence of this was that all landline numbers in Gibraltar have been prefixed with 200 in October 2008, making all numbers 8-digit long now. If you come across with a 5-digit number, just prefix it with 200 and, of course, with the country code prior to that if you are calling from out of Gibraltar. Mobile phone numbers have not been affected by this change, however.

The prefix to dial prior to country code for international calls is 00 in Gibraltar.

respect

Remember that Gibraltar is a British overseas territory.

People from Gibraltar refer to themselves as Gibraltarian or 'Llanito' pronounced Ya-ni-to. Even though the vast majority of Gibraltarians speak Spanish with a local dialect, they are easily offended if referred to as Spanish because they regard themselves as Gibraltarians and are very proud of their identity. Some Gibraltarians also feel sensitive to the erroneous use of the term 'colony' due to its connotations of being a depositied population or ruled by a foreign country or lacking in self-government, none of which apply to Gibraltar now or historically. Additionally the term 'colony' is legally incorrect, it is a 'British Overseas Territory'. The term 'colony' wasn't used in reference to Gibraltar until the 1830s, at this time there were other places that were colonies and their circumstances fitted use of the word and Gibraltar being grouped with them under the term colonies despite the circumstances being different.

Although the popular view is that the Spanish Government is the cause of many problems concerning Gibraltar, there is no animosity to individuals and Spanish tourists and workers experience no problems. Recent airport agreements have opened up the relationship Gibraltar has with Spain, even if some plain-clothed immigration agents purposefully use racial profiling when they control people's IDs.

talk

Gibraltar's official language is English. Spanish and Llanito are also widely spoken.

Llanito is essentially a mix of Andalusian Spanish and British English and elements from languages such as Maltese, Portuguese, Genoese Italian and Haketia Ladino. Over 500 Llanito words, for example, are of Genoese and Hebrew origin. All this makes a creole unique to Gibraltar. The term gibberish came from the Llanito habit of randomly alternating between English and Spanish words all the way through a sentence. This is more formally known as "code switching". In the United States, it may be called Spanglish. New words appear at random and spread quickly through the tight-knit community of Gibraltar, then could disappear just as fast.

Many businesses such as cafes and fast food outlets tend to employ Spanish workers from across the border, so many of these people speak only Spanish. Almost all locals are bilingual in English and Spanish.

medical treatment

Gibraltar is part of the European Health Insurance Scheme and has a health service similar to the United Kingdom, with a modern Hospital. If you are from a participating country, your EHIC card will entitle you to full free emergency medical treatment. For more information see this wikipedia article: .

barbary macaques

Tourists should be aware that the Barbary macaques are wild animals and do bite. It is advisable not to feed the Barbary macaque, despite encouragement from irresponsible taxi drivers. In addition, there are kiosks recklessly selling 'monkey food', further encouraging this. It is indeed illegal hefty fines are in force and bad for their health. Never try to pick up a baby Barbary macaque - its mother will not be happy, and neither will you. If you are bitten by a Barbary macaque, you will require hospital treatment. Whilst the Barbary macaques are rabies-free they can infect you with hepatitis, and they are most aggressive on the top of the rock, as the most successful animals claim the uppermost reaches of the rock, with their less successful fellows being shoved down the rock and the social pecking order.This said, the macaques will generally ignore you if you are not openly carrying food or plastic bags in your hands. They associate plastic bags with food, so as long as you keep everything food-related inside your bag you will be safe. As of June 2013 there are no longer any kiosks that sell food for the macaques; some taxi drives will encourage you to touch them but it is better to avoid doing this.

Content tagged with wikitravel is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. A list of contributors is available at the original article on Wikitravel.